Being involved in a car accident with your kids in the car!!!!
Being a parent brings many highs but also brings many lows, being a parent is not easy. You continually worry about your kids and I believe that I worry more as they are getting older. So being involved in a car accident with my world in the car has scared the life out of me!! I’m just relieved that no one was hurt.
Like any other weekday afternoon I was doing the lovely school run, the sun was shining so I had my window down. Looking forward to getting home and sorting dinner and stoping the arguments with the kids said no mum ever. We was stuck behind a bus waiting to turn left on to a road that had temporary traffic lights, it was busy as expected at school run time. The road I was on was not very wide and by all means could not fit two cars and a lorry at one time, side by side. So when this lorry appeared smashing the side of my car and sending my mirror off the side of my car and light debris in my window I absolutely s**t myself and yelled at my kids to get out the car. On looking at the damage it was like the lorry had a can opener as my door was sliced open and then he reversed back obviously doing more damage.
I was in pure shock and scared, I had no idea what to do….. I hadn’t even looked at the damage to my car at this point due to the shock. It was not until a nurse pulled over asking if we was ok as there was a hole in my car door that I realised what had happened and broke down into tears.
The individual immediately took responsibility and kept telling me to move my car, which I was sure as hell not doing. The first few minutes are a bit of a blur, I remember telling the kids to ring their dad, but I ended up doing it. It hadn’t crossed my mind that I would need to call the police until the nurse had said about it and then called for me. It turned out that someone else had also called the police, shame they never stoped to see if we was ok.
Within what seemed like a life time hubby and the police turned up, that was a police traffic van, an unmarked police car and then another police van turned up. However the last police van was not needed so they left, the only two people that stoped to see if everything was ok was an off duty policeman and a nurse that had just finished work. I personally find this quite shocking as it was obvious an accident had happened and children had been in the car, yet no one stopped to see if we was ok before the police turned up. Yet the amount of people I saw taking pictures of my car and slowing down was shocking, one of my boys also got text messages from his mates asking if all was ok. I also go a message from a friend that had heard about the accident from another friend but did not stop as at that point I think the police and the nurse was with me.
So much was happening it was horrible, so many people talking and asking questions and then having to give a statement to the police. I remember one of the kids asking me if I was going to have to do a breath test, I cant remember what I replied to them. It turned out I did have to do one which made me feel like I had done wrong but it was procedure. By this time I think the shock had really started to kick in and my chest was so tight I was struggling to breath. It did not help that my children surrounded me while having to do the test, I seriously felt I was doing wrong it was horrible.
The accident took I believe well over an hour to sort and for us to get home, I was so scared but I had to drive the car home where it was then it was to be left until something was sorted to transfer it to a garage. The past week and a half have been pretty tough for me and the kids. My eldest son suffered chest pains on the evening which I think was due to delayed shock, as while at the scene of the accident he sort of took control of his younger siblings making sure they was ok. You could see in his face and of his younger brother that they could not believe what had happened, they stood across the road and just stood looking at the car for some time. That night my daughter struggled to get to sleep and for some nights after as all she could see and hear was the truck going into the side of the car. My 13 year old was fine apart from shock and I don’t think he really understood why I kept him home from school the following day. My youngest has become weary of roads and lorry’s/trucks because of the accident which is horrible as he is a typical little boy and loves playing with his cars. He has also said that he does not want to go home that way anymore.
I was in complete shock and did what the nurse and policeman said to me, I had a strong and sweet cup of tea when I got in and I made myself eat so not to worry the kids. Then I had a large glass of wine or two, while everything went round in my head of what happened and how it could have gone in a completely different way. Apart from shock and playing things over in my mind I was fine over the weekend, but then Monday came. Monday I could feel nothing but fear taking hold of my body and I could not stop it, thank scooby hubby said he would do the school run. It would seem I was ok sitting in the passenger seat but the thought of driving and driving a different car scared the life out of me. The fear of someone going into us again and travelling the same route home where the truck hit us was hard.
Since starting this blog I have managed to drive the car and it was really scary, there are so many impatient drivers on the road its shocking. It does not help that whenever we do drive that way the paint is still on the road where the Police sprayed near the wheels of my car, so brings everything flooding back. I find it really hard and think its going to take some time to get my head round what happened. The driver of the truck was paying absolutely no attention to what he was doing other wise he would never have driven in to me, he was impatient over taking several other vehicles to make a right turn when not safe to do so.
This accident is going to take some getting over, and we are yet to drive that way with the children but all in good time. It is so important to be safe and if that means people beep their horn because you are driving slow past a school at home time then so be it, yes this happened to me last week and I don’t give a monkeys. I just wish other road users would calm down on the road as you don’t get to your destination any quicker. !!!!
